Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Friday, January 08, 2016

Latest news from The Bookseller

J K Rowling’s Pottermore website reported a dramatic fall in
sales in the period immediately before its planned summer relaunch,
according to accounts filed at Companies House. But a spokesman for the
business said the company would see a "healthy period of growth"
in 2016, with deals now in place with Blackwell’s, Amazon’s Audible and
Apple to sell e-books, audio-books and enhanced Harry Potter e-books.

Councils have been accused of seeing libraries as “soft
options” and "easy targets" when it comes to deciding on budget
cuts and run the risk of "undermining rights" by not fulfilling
their legal duties to provide library services, campaigners have said.

The International Publishers Association and the Italian
Publishers Association have condemned the Vatican for attempting to jail
two authors who alleged corruption and financial wrongdoing in the Holy
See.